


gross, disgusting, bewildering, enchanting

by myscribblingquill



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Getting Together, Idiots in Love, Marauders' Era, Minor Injuries, Minor Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-05
Updated: 2017-09-05
Packaged: 2018-12-24 08:56:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12009357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myscribblingquill/pseuds/myscribblingquill
Summary: “We have to do something,” James protests. “I can’t stand it.”“James, Sirius has a concussion,”“Poppy said he’ll be fine but he’s grossly, disgustingly in love,”featuring Quidditch, Madam Puddifoots, staircases, amused best friends and a little bit of cuddling.





	gross, disgusting, bewildering, enchanting

**Author's Note:**

> [Grace ](https://prongsno.tumblr.com) and I had a conversation and this happened? .... I'm sure not how it ended up this long 
> 
> _The first day of my life - Bright Eyes_

They’re friends, that’s what they told each other.

It’s not quite true though.

They are friends, but they’re something more too. After all, just friends don't smile at each other like that.

“Marls, I have class,” Mary protests. She’s stuck in the dormitory with Alice and Marlene blocking the doorway.

“Oh, and what class do you have this morning Mary?”

“You’re in the class too,” Mary points out, “And we’re going to be late.”

“Perhaps, but would you please tell us why exactly you’ve been smiling about being up at seven in the morning?” Alice questions.

“I,”Mary squares her shoulders, “I like the mornings,”

“Is it the mornings you like, or the people you see?”

“Well, I did have a nice chat with Peter this morning,”

“Not Peter,” Marlene blurts out, “But other people who are in a dormitory in this tower and should be going to the same class we’re going to?”

Mary is saved from answering the question by the arrival of Lily into the dorm.

“Are we skipping Charms or are you all planning on getting detention?”

“We are trying to find out why Mary’s been so smiley lately,” Marlene smirks at Mary who’s managed to slipped past her friends and down the stairs.

“Marls, no,” Lily shakes her head as she swung her bag onto her shoulder.

Mary’s not trying to deny that she’s friends with anyone but she doesn’t like her other friends reading too much into a simple exchange of words. She’s allowed to talk to him, she can’t help it if she keeps reliving those moments for the rest of the day.

These days Sirius does seem to be spending more time with her than normal. They don’t have all their classes together, she’s taking Arithmancy and he’s not. She always thought he disliked the library but he’s nearly always there waiting at the table she likes, and Mary can’t help but see him at Quidditch practise.

Most days when she leaves Charms and turns down to the Arithmancy classroom Sirius is there walking by her side. He doesn’t mention that he’s supposed to be going to opposite way. He does chatter on about their spellwork and all sorts of little things that make her smile.

Mary spends so much of her time smiling that her cheeks start to hurt. No matter how much she tries to keep the grin off her face it creeps back on.

“Mary, did you get your Charms essay back early or something?” Lily asks one day as they’re walking out of the Great Hall.

“No, although I did ask Flitwick and he said we’d get them next week,”

“Hm, so what’s all the smiling about?” 

“What smiling?” Mary bites her lip to stop another grin spreading across her face. 

They’re stood just outside the Great Hall and Mary has a perfect view of the Gryffindor table. She can’t help but glance at Sirius who’s grinning over James’ shoulder at her.

Mary knows that Lily is still talking but her brain just can’t focus on the words. All she can see is Sirius’ smile and the way he runs his hands through his hair groggy from sleep in the mornings. James’ notices that Sirius isn’t paying him any notice either and he follows Sirius’ gaze straight to her.

A blush spreads over her face. Lily frowns her change of colour and turns around herself. There’s an eyeroll shared between them. They’ve noticed the brushing of hands and they lingering eyes, they’ve noticed because it’s what they were like a few months ago. The way they dance around each other, unable to drag their eyes away not wanting to be caught staring, gives Lily a pang of in her chest because she knows what it feels like to be on the edge of something like that.

“The smiling?” Lily reminds Mary, a little smirk on her face.

Mary blushes again and turns away so she can’t see Sirius, “I got a letter from my mum.”

She’s not lying. There was a letter this morning, but it’s not what given her infectious butterflies in her stomach. The cause of that it walking towards them, nodding along as James explains his newest Quidditch strategy.

“Good evening ladies,” 

James and Lily’s hand join together. Sirius and Mary stuff their own hands in their pockets so they don’t mimic their friends. It would be all too easy.

“Don’t forget about practice tomorrow Mary,” James starts, “We’ve got a whole new game plan for our next match,”

“James, evenings are for napping in front of the fire, not Quidditch,” Sirius protests when James launches into another detailed explanation.

“Tomorrow evening is for Quidditch,”

“Not tomorrow yet and I need my nap,”

“I’ll make sure he comes and tucks you in,” Lily quips, evoking a laugh from Mary.

“Thanks,” Sirius glares and turns to Mary, “Coming back to the common room?”

The smile on Mary’s face droops for the first time all day, “I promised Alice I’d go to the library with her”

Sirius’ smile falls too.

“I’ll see you later though, we shouldn’t be too long,” Mary smiles and squeezes his shoulder. Sirius’ smile comes back to life.

“Right Mary, let’s get this damn essay done,” Marlene exclaims as she walks up to them with Alice in tow.

They bid each other goodbye for now. Sirius and Mary linger. Unable to drag his attention from Mary smiling back over her shoulder at him, Sirius walks towards where he thinks the stairs are. 

There’s a wall where he remembers the stairs being.

And he walks straight into it. 

“Good evening, Mister Black,” The painting on the wall glares down disdainfully.

“Evening, sorry about the-”

“Make sure you watch where you’re going,” The painting huffs.

But there are other prettier things to watch, like Mary Macdonald, Sirius thinks as he backs away from the wall. He avoids the laughing faces of James and Lily watching him from the top of the stairs. Mary’s watching him too, her mouth open in a ‘o’.

Are you alright? She mouths. 

He nods back and the smile on his face isback.

Mary watches him walk up the stairs. The urge to run after him is almost overwhelming. Her feet move of their own accord, her brain too occupied with the little bit of hair that falls down over his eyes.

“Mary,” Alice shouts and Mary is jerked backwards. One foot on the top stair, the other dangling off, the only thing stopping her from falling down the stairs is Alice’s hand on her arm. She wobbles and brings her foot back to the ledge.

“Thanks, I “ Mary shudders at the accident she just avoided, “I wasn’t paying attention.”

* * *

The stairs at Hogwarts are easy to navigate, but only if you know them and you’re paying attention. Sirius isn’t doing either of those things. He’s got better things to be thinking about.

He’s walking in the general direction of the Transfiguartion classroom. His legs are moving, his brain is focused on how Mary flourishes her wand when she uses it. The way she digs her finger in the little crevice at the bottom of her wand and how she runs her fingers over it, like she still can’t quite believe she gets to do magic.

It’s the sound of Peter laughing that catches his attention.

“Pete, what are you -” He breaks off, looking for his friends.

He can’t see them but he can hear them. The staircase he’s on is familiar but not one that he normally uses. 

“Where the bloody-” He leans over the edge of the staircase to see James, Remus and Peter all laughing up at him.

The reason they’re laughing, Sirius figures out, is that he can’t go down this staircase, he has to go up it and then along the third floor corridor before he can get back to the Great Hall.

Muttering under his breath about the betrayal of friends Sirius walks the long way round and gets back to the Great Hall. He pays attention to the stairs this time. His mind keeps slipping off though. The thought of Mary’s smile bring butterflies into his stomach. He wants to see if again, to see the little way she squints her eyes before she laughs and how she bites her lip when she doesn’t want to smile but can’t help it.

He opens the door to the classroom and steps into the room full of broom. It’s the broom cupboard. He pulls his foot out of a bucket and storms down the corridor. If it wasn’t for Mcgonagall glaring at him he would have slammed the door shut as he creeps into the classroom.

“Did you get lost?” James whispers.

“I ended up in the broom cupboard,” Sirius tells him with as much dignity as he can muster.

James conceals a fit of laughter with a cough, “Get distracted again Pads?”

Sirius elbows him and picks up his quill. He doesn’t look at Mary but he knows she’s there, sat two rows in front of him and three seats to the left. 

* * *

Quidditch practice the next day is a disaster. Mary falls off her broom twice and James looks like he’s ready to wring someone’s neck.

Neither Sirius or Mary notice. They’re too busy not looking at each other. Everyone else on the team notices that they’re not themselves and they definitely notice Lily dragging James away from the castle. 

“She fell off her broom,” James shouts, running a hand through his hair, “Twice ... twice Lils. Mary never falls off her broom.”

“I don’t think Mary’s been in love like this before,”

“Well maybe she can just hold off for a week or two, we have a Quidditch match,”

“James,” Lily raises an eyebrow.

“Sirius is talking in his sleep,”

“Please remind me who was it that fell off a chair when I leant my head on his shoulders?”

“That doesn’t count, it never impacted my Quidditch performance,”

Lily sighs. It did, at least three times. She remembers the dazed looked he had a whole match after she wished him good luck.

“You can’t stop their feelings,”

“I know but,” James’ eyes light up and Lily contains a groan, “What if we got them together before the match? That way they won’t be so distracted by each other.”

“No,”

“Why not?”

“We can’t force them into this,” Lily wraps her arms around James waist, he’s sweaty and aggravated but he still makes her heart flutter, “They’re not ready. Let them figure it out themselves.”

“I don’t care if they’re not ready. Sirius waved at her and she basically crashed into the ground. He missed every single goal,”

“James, it’s only been “ Lily counts in her head, “three months, they’ll get there.”

“They’d better. Sirius is writing poetry in his sleep,” James groans.

“He is?” Lily giggles, “Tell me more,” Her best friend might be in love with him but Lily’s not giving up an opportunity to get blackmail material.

The next Quidditch practise somehow goes worse. Mary is a little more focus this time, she does manage to pay attention to what James is saying.

Sirius is worse. He’s not even pretending to not look at Mary. He’s staring with a dopey grin, and he claps every time Mary does something, when she catches the practise snitch or shifts on her broom.

It’s not much of a surprise when the Quaffle collides with his head and James has to swoop in to stop Sirius colliding with the ground. Mary’s there seconds after James, calling Sirius’ name and checking his pulse.

“Practise is over,” James yells across the pitch. He lugs Sirius over to the infirmary with Mary helping.

Madam Pomfrey doesn’t look surprised. She just checks Sirius over and gets him into a bed. 

“He’s got concussion. He’ll wake up soon,” She says as she leaves.

Lily arrives a little while later and drags James off to get him out of his Quidditch robes. Mary stays, sat in a chair next to Sirius. She spends ten minutes tracing the lines of his hands with her eyes. At one point she reaches out and brushes her thumb over his before retracting into her chair again.

Mary falls asleep, her head dropping onto her chest. James and Lily chattering quietly in the background, and watching as Sirius stirs. He doesn’t see James and Lily watching, all his focus is on Mary, the way she breathes, the hair that’s fallen over her face and her clasped hands.

Sirius shifts in his bed and the movement wakes Mary. Smiles break across their face. Neither of them say anything, they just watch each other, drinking in each other faces and slow breathing. Lily averts her eyes, feeling like she’s prying on an intimate moment.

Then Mary shivers. She runs her hands down her bare arms which are covered in goosebumps.

No one is really sure what happens after that but somehow Mary ends up with a pile of blanket thrown over her. James says that Sirius panicked, Lily claims that he was trying and failing to be romantic and Sirius still maintains that his arms had a spasm caused by the concussion.

It doesn’t really matter what happened because Mary has a pile of blankets and it’s revealed that for some reason Sirius is wearing very very short pyjama bottoms.

He doesn’t notice.

“You have pretty hair,” 

Mary pushes the bit in front of her face behind her ear again, a little blush spreading up her neck.

“Those blanket match your eyes,” Sirius says, his head hurts and he doesn’t know why but Mary’s sitting next to him and she’s so pretty and the words are just falling out of his mouth.

“They have bluey bits in them, and they sparkle like the grey bits in your eyes,”

The blankets are grey and don’t sparkle but James and Lily are the only ones who notice that.

Silence falls for a minute and then -

“My knees are cold,”

Mary giggles as Sirius bunches his knees up to his chest. She tries to give a blanket back but Sirius drapes it over her head, his fingers twisting through a strand of Mary’s hair.

“Your hair is like sunshine, it’s like the things the sun give but so that you can touch them”

Mary opens her mouth to say something but Sirius keeps talking.

“Your name is so pretty too. Everything about you is pretty, but your name … it’s so,” Sirius sighs, “It’s like Mar-ee, it’s floaty and it’s fluffy ,”

“My name is fluffy?”

“Yes, it’s very pretty, it’s Mary,” Sirius nods at her with a jubilant smile. He continues trying out different ways to say Mary.

It can’t be the strangest thing to happy in the infirmary as Madam Pomfrey doesn’t falter when she appears again.

“Mister Black, why does Miss Macdonald have your blankets?” She demands, taking them off Mary’s head and dumping them back on the bed.

“Mary Macdonald,” Sirius exclaims, “Mary Macdonald was cold and she has a pretty name,”

“You have a concussion Mister Black,”

“Oh dear, do I have a bump on my face?”

“Your face is still as perfect as ever, Black,” Lily interjects with a giggle.

“Always knew you liked my face, Evans. I like your face Mary,” He says patting her hand as she helps Pomfrey with the blankets.

“Thank you Sirius,”

“Can’t you let them stay Poppy?” Sirius asks, as she shepherds them towards the door, Mary’s lingering by the bed.

“No Mister Black, you need to rest,”

“Not even Mary Macdonald?”

“Not even Miss Macdonald,”

Sirius’ face falls. Mary waits until James and Lily are out of sight and drops a kiss on Sirius’ forehead.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Mary pushes a strand of hair out of his eyes and leaves the room.

Madam Pomfrey bustles around and hands Sirius a glass of medicine. He drinks it with a grimace.

“Hey Mary,” He says, squinting at Madam Pomfrey, “Will you date me? Because I want to date you and I walked into a wall because your eyes are too pretty. They’re like, like the moon but blue,”

“Mister Black, I suggest you go to sleep and talk to Miss Macdonald when you don’t have a concussion,”

Outside the door Mary walks straight past James and Lily, too wrapped up in her thoughts, she doesn’t hear their whispering.

“We have to do something,” James protests. “I can’t stand it.”

“James, Sirius has a concussion,”

“Poppy said he’ll be fine but he’s grossly, disgustingly in love,”

“Really? I hadn’t noticed,”

“He said her eyes were like the moon but blue,” James looks offended at Sirius’ awful flirting. “Who flirts like that?”

“Oh I don’t know,” Lily looks pointedly at James.

“I was never that bad!” James protests.

“You were worse,”

“I never ended up with a concussion,”

“You almost set my hair on fire,”

“I was making a point,”

“It wasn’t a very good demonstration but James we were both as bad as they are before we started dating,”

“Exactly why they should be dating,” James declares.

Lily chuckles, “We’re barely any better now,”

“I’ve never set your hair on fire since,”

Lily considers for a moment. James does have a point, Mary hasn’t even mentioned Sirius or her feeling for him. It’s obvious but Mary hasn’t talked about it. The first thing Lily did when she realised she liked James as stuff herself with chocolate and list all his bad qualities to Mary. And Mary definitely hasn’t eaten any chocolate lately.

“I’ll talk to Mary and you can talk to Sirius,” Lily suggests and James lets out a triumphant yelp, “No forcing them though, it has to be natural.”

“If he starts talking in his sleep I’m writing it down and sending it to Mary in a letter,”

“That’s not what I meant James,”

“It would only be thing he’s actually said about her,”

“If he smothers you with a pillow, I’ll let him,”

* * *

Needless to say James’ conversation with Sirius doesn’t go very well. In fact it doesn’t happen. James tries, numerous times, but they never actually end up talking about Mary. Lily’s goes slightly better. She gets some sort of confession from Mary, who admits that she has feelings but won’t be specific about them.

Sirius gets let out of the infirmary a day later, and James has already tried twice to get him to talk about Mary.

They walk into the common room together, James talking about the Charms homework Sirius missed. The common room is busy, students crammed into corners and books spread on the floor. 

Mary hears Sirius’ voice, jumps up and flings herself into his arms. She’s not entirely sure why she did it, but her heart leaps when he wraps his arms around her and buries his face in her neck.

“Hi,” She whispers in his ear, unwilling to let him go.

“Hey,”

“Um,” The rest of the common room has gone silent, most them watching and wondering. Mary pulls away a little, “How are you feeling?”

“My head hurts a little,” Sirius rubs his head and Mary’s eyes follow his hand wondering what it would be like to run her hand through his hair.

“Oh dear, you should try and get some sleep,” 

Sirius nods. The chatter in the common room has resumed again, albeit quietly and with confused glances over at the door, but they’re too focused on each other. 

James is stood behind them, eyes wide as he shakes his head and tries to wiggle past them.

“Pads,”

“Yeah, we’re, Mary,” Sirius blurts out and finally moves out of the way. Mary manages to maneuver herself out of Sirius’ arm. She doesn’t move far away though. They’re stood close enough for the tips of their fingers to brush.

“I should,” Mary points to a little table where Lily and Alice are watching with interest, “But get some rest.”

“I’ll see you later,” Sirius smiles and squeezes Mary’s hand.

“Well?” James ask after she’s gone, hopeful that perhaps they’ve talked about things.

Sirius doesn’t say anything very coherent. He says a lot of words but it’s all very fast and all James understand is Sirius thinks he might die because of how pretty Mary is. He blames it on the concussion. 

Mary does the same thing with the rest of Sirius’ odd behaviour. When he saves her a seat at the breakfast table and makes her a cup of tea, she just blames the concussion. 

It’s a little bit harder to blame holding hands on the concussion. She reasons that his balance is probably a little funny and he doesn’t want to fall down the stairs, even if they are walking down a corridor.

“Mary, I found biscuits,” Sirius exclaims a few evenings later when she walks into the common room.

“Did you steal them from my secret stash?” Mary narrows her eyes, sitting down on the sofa next to him.

“Of course not, I … found them,”

“Found them in the second floor corridor?”

“Maybe,”

He looks so guilty that she can’t help laughing. 

And when he puts an arm around her waist and pulls her close, Mary can’t think of any reason to not let him. She still blames the concussion. He’s been doing it all week, cuddling with her on the sofa, holding her hand. She should put a stop to it, tell him, tell him something that would probably be a lie. 

Mary hasn’t been able to do it yet. There’s no harm in cuddling, and it’s not like he’s tried to kiss her. Friends can cuddle, can’t they?

They’re both almost dozing on the sofa. Mary reading a book and Sirius reading over her shoulder, when James and Lily walk in. Fury breaks across James face when he sees them cuddled up together.

“For the love of Godric Gryffindor, ask her out Sirius,” James yells before storming over to a table and slamming his bag down.

Sirius sits up, pulling Mary with him, confusion etched into her face, “I did,”

Mary jerks round to look at him, “You did?”

“I, I thought I did,” Sirius rubs a hand over his face, “In the infirmary.”

Mary stares at him, mouth open in shock. The knowledge that Sirius thought they’d been dating for the past week slowly seeps into her brain. It makes sense now, the cuddling, holding hands, the tea. What she doesn’t quite understand is why he thought they were dating in the first place.

“Wait, you mean I didn’t ask you?” 

“No I’m pretty sure you didn’t,” Mary’s not sure how she gets the words out but she does, “You called my name pretty but that was it”

“Oh but then why, why have we been -” He breaks off, gesturing between them, “It’s been a week and you didn’t say anything?”

“I thought you still had concussion … you thought we were dating?”

The confusion Mary’s feeling is matched by Sirius’ face. 

“Yes, I … there were blankets?”

“Yes, but no questions,”

The common room has descended into silence again. Everyone’s watching what’s going on on the couch.

“We’re not dating?” Sirius asks, to check that he’s got all the right fact now.

“No, I arranged to go to Hogsmeade with Ryan Bishop, which I told you about yesterday, do you think I would do that if we were?”

“You what?” Sirius stares at her, “We’re dating!”

“No we’re not,” Mary reminds him, because they’re really not but they could be.

“Oh,” 

That’s all he says and Mary’s heart sinks a little. It would be so easy for him to just ask, but he doesn’t, he just stares at her with a dejected look.

“Fine, I’ll go to Hogsmeade with Ryan,”

“Wait, no, Mary,” The words fall out of his mouth a little too late. She’s already gone and Sirius is left staring at an empty doorway.

“You really thought you were dating her?” Peter asks later in their dorm.

“I asked someone out in the infirmary, apparently it wasn’t her though,” Sirius grumbles. He’s already had to put up with James laugh at him for ten minutes straight and now he doesn’t even have an excuse to cuddle with Mary.

“And now she’s going to on date with that prat,”

“Do you even know him?”

“No, but he’s going on a date with Mary,”

“You could be if you asked her,” James points out, earning a glare from Sirius.

“Alright, Prongs. Not all of us are able to form sentences around the girls we like,”

The next week is almost unbearable, for Sirius, for James, for Mary, for anyone who comes into contact with any of the seventh year Gryffindors. Sirius claims he’s fine, but he spends most of the week watching the back of Mary’s head and wishing he could find something to say to her. 

They still talk, and act like friends but there’s distance between them now. Mary doesn’t quicken her pace to catch up with him in the corridor, they don’t work together in the library. She does still smile at him, but it’s not a proper smile and Sirius notices, it’s forced and cracked at the edges and Sirius has no idea how to fix it. She doesn’t wish him good morning anymore and he finds it a little bit harder to get out of bed.

Remus has to listen to numerous love confession that Sirius insists on practising on him, and James is sure that he knows Mary’s face just as well as Sirius, from the number of times he’s described it. The colour blue become a source of agony for all four of the Marauders.

Mary’s just as unbearable. It’s not outwardly noticeable though, Sirius mopes around the dormitory driving Remus and Peter mad, but Mary, Mary spends her time at the library, the Quidditch pitch, the kitchen’s, anywhere that she can try to forget Sirius’ smile. Lily notices and so does Marlene and Alice. They try to pry it out of her but all they get is a watery eyed glare and an apology for her grumpiness.

And then Saturday arrives.

Sirius doesn’t appear at the breakfast table, claiming that he can’t bear it. Mary drinks half a cup of tea and then disappears. 

Lily finds her twenty minutes later in the bathroom talking to herself in the mirror.

“You are going on this date,” She tells the mirror, shaking her hairbrush at herself.

“Mare,” Lily watches her friend in the mirror, there are tears in her eyes, “You don’t have to go.”

“Yes I do, I promised I would,” Mary gulps and straightens her dress.

Lily hugs her before she leaves, “James and I will be in the Three Broomsticks later, in case you need us,”

“Thanks Lil,”

“Where are you going with Ryan?”

Mary grimaces, “Puddifoots,”

“Enjoy all the pink,” Lily jokes and Mary smiles.

“Have fun with James,”

“Thanks, I'll see you later,”

Mary tries, she really does, but it doesn’t work. She listens and talks and tries to laugh. They make it to Madam Puddifoot’s and he doesn’t care when she complains about the shortbread being too hard. He doesn’t even tease her about her tea choices.

He’s too nice, his hair is too short, he’s not interested in Quidditch at all and all Mary wants to do is kick Sirius Black in the shins because this is all his fault.

It’s typical that he’s the first person she sees when she makes it back to the castle. All she wants is her bed and a nice warm jumper and what she gets is Sirius lounging on the sofa with his shirt bunched up showing his stomach. 

Mary stands there for a moment. Anger washes over her. She’s just had the most awful date and he’s sat there, relaxed and sleepy, reminding her of all the reason her date was awful.

He notices her staring and jerks upright, his shirt falling back down over his stomach.

She wants to say something, to shout at him because this is all his fault. She wants to fall asleep and not dream of his smile, but mostly she just wants to cuddle up next to him.

Mary doesn’t cuddle up next to him, she flops down on the sofa though, sighing and tugging the hair pins out of her hair.

“How was the Hogsmeade and the, er, date?” His eyes are fixed on the fire, refusing to look at her as she curls her feet up under her legs.

It would make more sense for her to tell him how the date went, to tell him that she hated it and that it should have been a good date. But she can’t find the words so she lets out a long groan instead, hoping he’ll understand.

Sirius shifts back on the couch. He’s so close that Mary can feel the heat of his arm though her coat. They make eye contact and the sympathy Mary sees in Sirius’ eye reminds her why she was angry in the first place.

She seethes silently. 

“Would you like a cup of tea Mary?” He asks, gently and with an apologetic tone.

Mary doesn’t want a cup of tea, not now, what she wants has nothing to do with tea and everything to do with Sirius’ lips.

He brings her a cup of tea anyway. 

As the warmth from the mug seeps into her hands Mary relaxes. She’s still mad at him, she still wants to kiss him. 

“Want to talk about this horrific date?”

Mary sighs. There’s a caring note in his voice and the inquisitive look on his face shows that he genuinely wants to know, that he cares. She’d expcted him to sound gleeful, happy that her date didn’t go well, but he sounds concerned, without a hint of jealously in his voice.e

“It wasn’t that horrific,”

“But it was pretty bad?”

“Yeah,”

“What was so bad about it?”

“Like you don’t know,” The words slip out before she can stop them. Her heart leaps into her throat. It’s too close, too close to what they haven’t been saying and Mary’s not quite sure how he’s going to react.

“No actually, I don’t,” He smiles, a knowing smile, “Is he half troll or something?”

“Might have been better if he was,” Mary mutters. She would feel a little bit better about this whole situation if there was a reason for it being a terrible date, but there isn’t. Ryan was perfect. The problem was that he wasn’t Sirius.

“Why would you want to date a half-troll?”

“I wouldn’t,”

“Oh,” 

Mary looks over a Sirius. That bit of hair has fallen over his face again. He hasn’t noticed, too busy staring at her and Mary’s lips twitch into a smile.

“Yeah, oh,” She drains the last of her tea. The heat from the fire is making her uncomfortable, so she takes her coat off and undoes her shoes, they’ve been pinching her feet all day. “So how was your day?”

She’s not sure why she asks, maybe she wants to know that he’s been a miserable as she has all week. If he has been she hasn’t noticed.

“Oh great, just me and the house elves and the books,” He waves a hand. He doesn’t look like he’d had a miserable day.

“You read a book?”

“Had to do something to combat the loneliness,”

“Hm,” Mary can see that there is a book open on one of the tables. He’s sneaking furtive glances at her when she’s not looking, studying the lines of her face as if he can figure out where the distance between them came from. Sirius knows there’s something wrong, he’s not sure how to fix it though. It’s related to the date, the stupid date that she went on because he didn’t ask her.

“I’m guessing there’s no second date then?”

Mary frowns, “Why are you so interested in my love life?”

“I’m just being nice, friendly,” Sirius protests.

“Friendly?”

“Yeah, you seem a bit put out,”

Mary sits up from the sofa, her shoulder ridged, disbelief on her face, “I seem put out?”

“You seem,” He pauses searching for the words. Mary watches as he says, “Angry,” very slowly, and then adds, “Are you sure you’re alright?”

Mary scoffs, she is angry but she’s not angry with Ryan. She’s angry with herself and with Sirius.

“What did he do?” Sirius questions, shifting his closer to her.

She stands and glares down at him, “It wasn’t him that angered me,” she says forcefully, how bloody obtuse can someone be?

“It wasn’t? I supposed you have seemed a bit … since -” He breaks off with an ‘oh’. 

“Yeah, since that night,” How can he have spent a week not noticing that she’s been miserable?

It all clicks into place. He’s spent the week dwelling on the fact that she’s going on date, wrapping himself up in half written love confessions and the colour of her eyes. He hadn’t even thought to figure out how she’s been feeling.

“Mary-” He starts.

She cuts him off. She’s spent a week failing to ignore him, a week trying to look forward to her date and he’s spent that whole time not saying anything. Mary’s not going to listen to it any longer, she’s been planning this all week and he’s not getting in the way of it now.

“After a bloke thinks you’ve been dating, for a week, and then finds out you’re not, there is normally some discussion about why he thought you were dating in the first place,” It’s probably the most convoluted sentence to ever come out of her mouth.

“I thought we were dating,” Sirius pushes his hair out of his face, “I thought we’d had that discussion,”

Mary sighs and sits down.

“But obviously, we hadn’t, because we were dating,” Sirius lets out a sigh and sinks his head onto his hands.

Mary wants to laugh at how bloody stupid they’ve both been. Sirius has been assuming things and she’s been assuming things and somewhere in the middle they forgot to talk to each other.

“I know,” Mary chuckles.

Sirius sits up and moves a little closer, “I walked into a broom cupboard because I was thinking about your eyes,”

“Apparently they match the blankets,” Mary quips.

“I said that?” Sirius groans.

“Yep, but I almost fell down the stairs because you smiled at me,”

He smiles at that and Mary thinks she would quite happily fall down the stairs if he’d keep smiling at her like that.

“I’m sorry, I should have just asked you out on a date,” He winces a little, “I was going to but the words …”

“I don’t think the concussion made you forget english,” Mary laughs and takes his hand. It’s been inching closer to her since she’s sat back down.

“The concussion didn’t but the way you smile does,”

Sirius brushes his thumb over hers and Mary sinks her head onto his shoulder. She never wants to move from this couch, she could stay here forever. Sirius’s arms go around her waist and pull her close to him. 

“Sirius, there’s another Hogsmeade weekend soon,” Mary twists her head so she can look her him.

“I know,” 

He looks nervous, he keeps opening and shutting his mouth. Mary can’t keep the grin of her face, “If I promise not to smile -”

“Mary I will buy you a new broomstick if you can stop smiling for thirty seconds.” Sirius says.

She tries. Sitting up, pulling herself out of his arms so she’s kneeling on the couch. She forces her face into a frown, furrowing her eyebrows and gritting her teeth together. Sirius smiles at her and she bites her lip, she can’t stop the smile though.

How is she supposed to stop smiling when he’s grinning at her like that?

“Hey Sirius, wanna go to Hogsmeade with me?”

Somehow his smile gets even brighter. He reaches out and tugs her forward. Their noses are touching and all Mary can see if Sirius’ smile, Sirius’ eyes, Sirius.

“I’m glad you found the words, because I think all of mine have fallen out my ears,”

Mary can feel his breath against her lips as she whispers, “Blame the concussion.”

She can feel the smile on his face as their lips press together.

Sometime later they’re wrapped up on the couch together, half dozing as Mary traces lines into Sirius’ shirt.

The increase in noise outside the door rouses them a little but not enough for either of them to move. The door opens and James and Lily walk in.

“You two had better be dating now because I am not putting up with another week of that,” James shouts when he sees them curled up on the couch together.

Lily waggles her eyebrows at Mary and she grins back at her with a subtle nod.

“Potter, I am trying to nap with my girlfriend,” Sirius says haughtily.

“I don’t care Sirius, are you two -” Realisation dawns on James’ face, “Girlfriend?”

“Wait, Sirius, we’re dating?” Mary asks, sitting up. 

Sirius looks amused for a second before doubt clouds his face, “What? Mary we, we just discussed this. Did you fall asleep?”

“No but, just to check,” She glances at Lily who’s having trouble containing her laughter and James who looks like he might cry. “We’re dating? Girlfriend and boyfriend, dating?””

“For the love of-” James tries to butt in.

“Mary Macdonald would you please be my girlfriend? I don’t want James to have a breakdown before our last Quidditch match,” Sirius blurts out.

“We’ve been dating for two hours,” Mary giggles and Lily’s laughter erupts around the room.

Sirius shakes his head at her and drops a kiss on her forehead.

“Now you’ve sorted that, how was the date Mary?” Lily asks.

Sirius and Mary burst into laughter as James and Lily squeeze onto the couch with them. 

* * *

Years later, after they’ve left Hogwarts and become adults, against all odds, they’re still together. Sirius and Mary share a little flat in London, while they both work and try to be productive members of society. 

Their flat is small enough for them to be able to see each other at almost all times. It’s one of Sirius’ favourite things, he can see Mary, see her smile and brush her hair and sing to herself.

She’s making the tea and he’s watching her from the couch. A pile of blankets bundled up at on the floor, waiting for Mary, so Sirius can wrap them up together. Mary comes back with the tea, two steaming mugs that are too hot to touch.

“Hey, Mare,” Sirius mutters into her hair, “Just to check, we are dating?”

She turns around with a laugh on her face, “I think so, I mean you might have still had concussion when I asked.”

They laugh at the memory.

“I want to stop dating now,” He whispers into her ear.

Mary’s body jerks in shock, she wrenches herself out of his arms. “Pardon? You’re breaking up with me?” She asks and then before Sirius can get a word in, “I hate that blue jumper, it’s itchy.”

“Wait, no, Mary. Not what I meant,” Sirius panics, “I love you,”

“I love you too! Why are we breaking up?”

“I’m not, we’re not, I -”

“Then what do you mean by-” Mary breaks off as Sirius get off the couch and goes down on one knee in front of her, “What are you doing?”

He gropes for the box he’s had hidden from months, and opens it.

"Mary when two people have been dating for a long time they generally stop dating and get married so I'd like to ask, would you stop dating me and be married to me instead?" Sirius says, almost without a breath.

Mary’s jaw is slack, staring at the ring, and then at Sirius’ face. There are tears in her eyes. She leans forward and kisses him.

“Yes, yes,” 

Sirius kisses her back and pulls her off the couch into his arms. When they break apart he slips the ring onto her finger. Mary studies it for a moment and then turns to Sirius.

“Don’t you ever do anything like that again,”

“It was romantic,” Sirius protests.

“It was terrifying,”

“Sorry, love,” Sirius kisses her hair, “I love you, Mary Macdonald.”

“I love you too, Sirius Black,” Mary kisses him again, when she pulls away her face is serious, “How are we going to tell James and Lily? James cried when we got together!”

Sirius laughs, and presses his lips to hers, “James already knows, he helped me pick the ring,” 

He settles back against the couch, Mary in the his arms. She plays with strand of his hair, twirling it around her fingers.

“I’m not getting rid of the jumper.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Credit for all grammatical errors goes to my brain, credit for all spelling mistakes to my fingers!
> 
> Say hi on tumblr: [willsdarcy](https:///willsdarcy.tumblr.com)


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